yay!

Dear Iron,

Yay! I must admit the previous site and methodology was standing in the way of me ordering and "dipping my toe in the water". Hopefully this improved interface encourages more sales for Andy...

Happy Modelling,
Aim to Improve,
Prof Klyzlr

NICE!!!

It's UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hire a web designer

They certainly don't make it easy to buy things.  I had hope for the redesign but it seems the "too many items on too many pages" core of their design philosophy has stuck around.  I really needed some rail and ties but get a headache every time I try to find anything on the site.

Doesn't really work well on

Indeed...

Not much more user friendly than the old site, which I had after many long visits come to terms with, to a degree.  Now here we have a revised version to figure out again.  I'm not sure I'll bother.

A web designer would be a step forward even if it meant having to increase prices.

Was poised to order in the past, even had a wish list in the works, and then met Andy here in the forums...

Yeah it is

still a bit cumbersome to navigate.  This is all just my opinion of course.  I must say I'm not a fan of scrolling down to the bottom to change sub-categories, and there seems to still be alot of these 'sub-cats', and spent alot of time going back and forth and forward and back to see what I wanted.  Unless I'm mistaken, there isn't a 'Search', which would help, but again how would you know what to type in when you want a certain tool..maybe because these are all tools?  For example, look for 'track base HO plastic' (under HO/ Mix n' Match/Fast and Easy) and you get straight bases, not turnout bases, which are somewhere else- but also literally 'track bases plastic' . 

This is all just my two cents, so no offense Andy, and I'm sure alot of thought went into this design.  I'm just offering some maybe-helpful feed-back. 

I have no idea

the going rate for a web-designer, and I certainly have no idea of the costs/profits for the Proto store.  I will say I do believe the Proto store probably isn't a factory, and probably doesn't have a warehouse full of pallets of stuff that came in from China.  Nor do I think there is a staff waiting 24/7 for your call/order to be processed.

If in any small way keeping the costs of the product down means a less-than super-easy navigable website, then I'm okay with it. 

Ever notice some (other) manufacturers don't have a website at all?  You can Google all you want for some of them and all you'll find is someone trying to sell you something or else the company's business info- phone, address, etc.  Even no email address in some cases.

Improved

The site has improved; it still takes some exploration.  I believe that Andy is a one-man shop, with occasional help from his neighbors at CVMW.

But there are more gems to be found.  I just clicked on the drop-down "Information Library / Prototype Info / Real Track".  There, Andy presents a photo article where he quite successfully makes the case for his products, by discussing what we should be seeing when using our typical layout viewing angles.

Me, I go for second-best with the CVT ties with molded on tie plates.  I think I need to try out a mole, though.

Now, back to explore the site more thoroughly.  Thanks for the improvement, Andy.  (lets see, MP-413 - MP-262, that means I'm only 151 miles away.)

Andy Track

I had to go see what you had found. Looking at the comparison picture at the bottom of the page I found myself thinking "What's all the Proto 87 hoopla about? The model track doesn't look like the real thing either. Where are the spike heads on the rails?" If you are going to this length to create super realistic track why stop short? Make it look exactly like the real thing.